In a process of manufacturing a semiconductor device, a circuit pattern is formed on a resist film on a substrate with the use of lithography. The circuit pattern is formed through a series of processes. Specifically, a photoresist is applied to a surface of a substrate, a circuit pattern is baked on a resist film on the surface of the substrate with an exposing machine, and then a developer is supplied to the exposed resist film to perform a developing process. In the developing process of these, a developing method with puddle development has been used widely. The puddle development is a developing method performed in a state where a substrate is spun around a vertical axis while being held horizontally and a developer is supplied from a tip outlet of a straight nozzle to the center of the substrate to coat the resist film on the entire surface of the substrate with the developer filmily. The circuit pattern formed on the resist film has a line width adjusted in accordance with a developing time. The resist film is coated with the developer for a given time to form an expected circuit pattern. Thereafter, a cleaning liquid is supplied to the substrate to perform cleaning. When the cleaning is finished, the substrate is spun to be dried through a spin-dry effect (as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-91751A, page 3, for example).
A positive developing method (also called positive development) using an alkaline developer such as a TMAH (Tetra Methyl Ammonium Hydroxide) solution has been conventionally used. Instead of this method, a negative developing method (also called negative development) using a developer containing an organic solvent such as butyl acetate has been used recently. In the positive developing method, deionized water is used as a cleaning liquid whereas, in the negative developing method, a cleaning liquid containing an organic solvent such as MIBC (Methyl Iso Butyl Carbinol) is used (as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-28281A, page 79, for example).
The negative developing method with a conventional configuration has the following problem.
Since an organic solvent is more expensive than deionized water, a usage amount of the cleaning liquid greatly influences costs for the negative developing method. This may cause an inconvenience.
On the other hand, when the usage amount of the cleaning liquid is decreased, the developing quality may be reduced accordingly. Firstly, components in the resist film are dissolved into the developer to obtain a dissolved product. The dissolved product easily remains on the substrate also after cleaning. This may cause failure in the development. Secondly, since the developer easily remain on the substrate also after the cleaning, it becomes difficult to stop the development at an appropriate timing. This may cause difficulty in suitably control of a line width in the circuit pattern.